MBB Small College Recap: Antonio Singleton notches career-high for San Angelo

Division II

IN THE RANKINGS:

St. Edward’s moved back in to the NCAA DII NABC Coaches’ Poll released on Tuesday. The Hilltoppers re-entered the rankings at No. 24 after winning their only game they played last week. SEU defeated Texas A&M-Kingsville 88-83 on the road last Wednesday to move to 9-1 on the season. The Hilltoppers will play an exhibition game at Rice on Thursday before hosting NCAA DIII Schreiner on Saturday afternoon.

West Texas A&M took a fall in the poll this week after suffering a close loss on the road last week. The Buffs fell six spots to No. 13 this week. WT lost 68-65 on the road last Thursday against south central region foe Lubbock Christian. The Buffs head to Las Vegas this weekend to play in the Las Vegas Hoopla. WT will play Washburn and Pittsburg State over the weekend in the Centennial Hills Community Center.

FINALS WEEK:

We have entered the time of year where the basketball schedule slows down as the players study to pass final exams. Most teams take one to two weeks off during this time to allow their players ample time to study and to prepare for the upcoming conference schedule in January.

There is one huge tournament this weekend in Honolulu. Dallas Baptist will play in the Hoops in Hawaii DII Power Invitational from Dec. 16 – Dec. 18. DBU opens the tournament with No. 11 Southern Nazarene. Other top teams in DII in the tournament include Western Washington, No. 7 UC San Diego, Hawaii Pacific, and currently undefeated No. 20 Chaminade.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:

Heartland Conference:

Dorian Lopez, St. Edward’s, Forward, Jr., San Antonio, Texas
St. Edward’s junior Dorian Lopez had a monster double-double of 23 points and 15 rebounds as the No. 12 Hilltoppers avenged their only loss of the season in an 88-82 win over Texas A&M-Kingsville. Lopez was remarkably efficient hitting 64-percent of his shots from the floor including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. The San Antonio native also pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds including eight on the offensive end. Lopez ranks fourth in the conference this season in rebounds per game at 8.2 and is tied for second in offensive rebounds with 29. This is Lopez’s first player of the week award this season.

Lone Star Conference:

OFFENSIVE
Antonio Singleton, Angelo State University, SR, Kinesiology, Forward, Long Beach, California, Cabrillo HS
The Rams played just once over the weekend, but blew out regional opponent St. Mary's thanks to a dominant performance from Singleton, who started for the first time this season. The senior forward had a season high and matched his career high in scoring with 33 points in 34 minutes on the floor. He was responsible for more than a third of the Rams' points on night. He was 9-12 from the field overall and a perfect 5-5 from behind the arc. He also added in 10 rebounds for the first double-double of his Angelo State career. He is now averaging double figures on the season with 11.3 points per game.

DEFENSIVE
Willie Rooks, Texas A&M University-Commerce, SR, General Studies, Guard, Houston, Texas, North Forest HS
Rooks was an impact player on both ends of the floor for the Lions last week. He averaged 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds in the Lions two wins and also impacted the turnover margin. Rooks had three rebounds and three steals against Central Baptist and his defense helped the Lions hold CBC to 37 percent shooting in the team's 24-point victory. He then had a steal and a block to go with five rebounds and 16 points in the team's 22-point win over Dallas Baptist. Rooks and the Lion defense held DBU to 38 percent shooting in the game. Overall, teams shot under 38 percent against the Lion defense as they had a +23.0 scoring margin in two victories.

Division III

FINALS WEEK:

We have entered the time of year where the basketball schedule slows down as the players study to pass their final exams. Some teams took their finals last week, but most teams will take finals this week. Most teams take one to two weeks off during this time to allow their players ample time to study.

The ASC and SCAC are continuing their conference play. After this weekend, the ASC conference schedule will pause until January when most of the games played will be conference games. The SCAC has only played a couple of conference game thus far, but that will change towards the end of this week. Most of the teams in the SCAC will play conference games through the end of the season with an occasional non-conference game mixed in the schedule.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK:

American Southwest Conference:

CO-EAST DIVISION PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Brosnan Cooks, Jr., F, Belhaven

Belhaven junior forward Brosnan Cooks (Elba, Ala.) led the Blazers with 28 points on 10-of-11 shooting to go with three rebounds, three assists and three steals in their 82-76 win against Rhodes. He scored 14 of Belhaven’s 18 points in the final four minutes, as the Lynx only managed nine points in the same stretch.

CO-EAST DIVISION PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Nate West, Jr., G, LeTourneau

LeTourneau junior guard Nate West (Houston, Texas) recorded the 14th triple-double in ASC history in a 94-69 YellowJacket win over Sul Ross State Thursday night. In the victory, West recorded 24 points to go with 10 rebounds and 10 assists. He was 14-for-14 at the charity stripe. West followed with 18 points, nine assists and five boards in a 99-60 win against Howard Payne. For the week, he averaged 21.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 9.5 assists and 3.0 steals per game to earn his second Player of the Week honors of the year and fifth of his career.

WEST DIVISION PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Sam Moore, So., G, Mary Hardin-Baylor

Mary Hardin-Baylor sophomore guard Sam Moore (Gonzales, Texas) averaged 24.5 points per games as the Cru won a pair of games. He scored 16 points with four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals off the bench in an 89-74 win against Texas Lutheran. He followed with 33 points, shooting 12-of-17 from the field and draining six of his nine three-point attempts to go with five boards, two assists and three steals in an 85-76 victory at UT Dallas. Moore averaged 24.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.5 steals per game and shot 64.3 percent (18-of-28) from the field and 53.3 percent (8-of-15) from three-point range for the week to earn his second Player of the Week award of the year.

Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference:

JONTRELL HERMAN OF JOHNSON & WALES (DENVER), a senior guard from Duck Hill, Miss., has been named the SCAC Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for games played from Monday, December 3 through Sunday, December 9.

Herman averaged 25.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 5.3 steals to lead JWU to a 3-1 record last week. Herman had two double-doubles in the four games, including a 21-point, 11-rebound effort in a win over Colorado College in the Wildcats’ first-ever SCAC conference game on Dec. 4. Two days later, the senior guard recorded his fourth 30-point game of the season in a victory over Caltech, making 4-of-6 attempts from the 3-point line and 8-of-10 free throws. At 8-2, the Wildcats are off to their best 10-game start in program history.

AROUND THE CONFERENCE:

Austin College – Did not play last week.

Concordia Texas – Lost at Texas Lutheran 79-77; Lost at UT Dallas 77-74; Lost at Texas Southern 107-70

Cory Hogue is Dave Campbell's Texas Basketball small college correspondent follow him on Twitter at @HoagieSports and be sure to visit his website (linked below) for more coverage of Division II and Division III collegiate athletics.